As if we needed more evidence of billionaire hunger to capture the "education markets," Missourians can now look forward to a full-court press to amend the Missouri constitution to kill teacher tenure so teachers can become another commodity to churn, with Sinquefield's blessing wrapped in a $750,000 contribution to the cause.
Sinquefield understands churn, because he's a very wealthy fund manager. Markets are his god of choice.
The campaign, in a style now associated with those who hope to dismantle the teaching profession, has the duplicitous name “teachgreat.org” to signify the opposite of its intent. The assumption is that the removal of any job security and any kind of due process for teachers will somehow mysteriously produce “great” teachers. This absurd idea is then called “reform.” This is the kind of thinking that typically comes from hedge fund managers, not human service professionals.
[...]
“The “Teachgreat.org” initiative would limit teacher contracts to no more than three years. It also requires “teachers to be dismissed, retained, demoted, promoted, and paid primarily using quantifiable student performance data as part of the evaluation system,” according to the summary on the group’s website.
“The initiative also mandates that teachers be allowed to engage in collective bargaining for pay, benefits and working conditions, in an apparent move to appeal to teacher groups. So far, such organizations have been wary of the proposed constitutional amendment.
“Sinquefield gave $100,000 to Teachgreat.org this summer.
It's not only teachers, either. Sinquefield is a generous contributor to political efforts throughout Missouri that will benefit him and his investment funds.
“This latest contribution sharply increases Sinquefield’s total 2013 donations to various Missouri causes and candidates to more than $2.5 million, according to the Ethics Commission’s tally.”
He is not a nice man, despite his claim on his personal website that he's a 'philanthropist'. Hedge fund philanthropy means using nonprofits to buy your political goals, after all.
Sinquefield despises public schools. In 2012, he had to apologize for a remark in which he said that the KU Klux Klan invented public schools to hurt African-American children.
Sinquefield founded a fund that now manages over $300 billion. He is also founder and president of the Show-Me Institute, a libertarian policy belief-tank.
